Dr. Cheryl Thompson

Knowledgeable Scholar and Director with robust background in academic instruction and research. Delivered numerous impactful lectures, published peer-reviewed articles, and led student mentorship programs. Demonstrated proficiency in curriculum development and academic advising.

Canada Research Chair, Tier 2 ($600,000), “Black Expressive Culture and Creativity,” 2024–ongoing

Social Sciences Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Grant ($263,779), “Assessing the Social Capital of Ontario's Archives and the Possibilities for 'Third Places',” 2024–29

SSHRC Knowledge Synthesis Grant ($29,817), “Cross-disciplinary Analysis Towards Devising a Methodology for Digital Black Archival Collections,” 2024–25

New Collaborations Grant ($6,000), “Building a digital asset management (DAM) prototype system for Mapping Ontario's Black Archives (MOBA),” The Creative School, collaborator1, Reem El Asaleh (Graphic Communication Management) and collaborator2, Neal Bilow (Terentia, digital assessment management firm), 2023–24

Ontario Arts Council Skills and Career Development: Indigenous Arts Professionals and Arts Professionals of Colour Grant ($9,500). “Conducting Research in Theatre Archives in Southwestern Ontario,” 2024

Toronto Arts Council Grant ($10,000), “Black Creative Practices: Aesthetics, Expressive Cultures, and the Blurred Lines of Cultural Ownership,” 2023

SSHRC Partnership Development Grant ($171,886.90), “Mapping the Music Industries: Creating an Equity-Informed Framework for Community-Led Cultural Production,” co-applicant Miranda Campbell, 2023–26

Teaching and Learning Grant ($10,726), “Creating a Digital Textbook for Black Studies Course Delivery,” Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, TMU, 2023–24

Publication Subvention Fund ($3,000), The Creative School, TMU, “Canada and the Blackface Atlantic, 1604-1895,” 2022–23

Equity, Community, Inclusion Curriculum Grant ($1000), "Spaces and Places of Black Creative Practices: Exposing Students to Visual Practitioners,” The Creative School, 2022–23

SSHRC Connection Grant ($42,336), “Creating Public Access to Black Archives and the Performing Arts,” 2022–23

Centenary Initiative Grant ($2000), "Uncovering Toronto's Black Fashion History," Canadian Historical Association, 2022–23

Early Researcher Award, Ontario Government ($190,000), “Mapping Ontario's Black Archives: Building An Inventory Through Storytelling,” 2021–26

SSHRC Connection Grant ($47,625), “White Skin, Black Masks: Canada's Blackface Secret,” co-applicant Pink Moon Studio, 2020–22

SSHRC Insight Development Grant ($48,072), “Newspapers, Minstrelsy and Black Performance at the Theatre: Mapping the Spaces of Nation-Building in Toronto, 1870s to 1930s,” 2019–22

Scholarly Research Creation (SRC) Seed Grant ($6880), Faculty of Communication and Design, “Newspapers, Theatres, and the Spaces of Black Performance in Toronto,” 2019

SSHRC-Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship ($140,000), University of Toronto and the University of Toronto Mississauga, “Visualizing Blackface Minstrelsy in Canada: Seeing Race, Negotiating Identities, 1890-1959,” 2016–18

SSHRC Aid to Scholarly Publishing Program Grant ($8,000), Beauty in a Box: Detangling the Roots of Canada's Black Beauty Culture, 2018

Canada Research Chair in Black Expressive Culture and Creativity

Black expressive culture, a term coined in the 1970s, captures the artistic works and practices of Black people and reflects the complexities of Black experiences. But in Canada, the contributions of Black Canadians to arts and culture have been historically marginalized and underrecognized, leading to gaps in archival records and limited access to these rich cultural histories.

As Canada Research Chair in Black Expressive Culture and Creativity, Dr.Cheryl Thompson is working to address these gaps. She and her research team are mapping shifts in Black identity and representation and articulating how diaspora manifests through Black performative cultures. They are also collaborating with Black scholars, archivists and cultural producers to develop a new archival method. Their aim is to ensure that Black creative histories are accessible and searchable, and to empower future researchers, archivists and historians to better document and preserve Black cultural contributions in Canada.

Thompson, Cheryl. Canada and the Blackface Atlantic: Performing Slavery, Conflict, and Freedom, 1812–1895. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. ( April 2025 )

Thompson, Cheryl. Thompson, Cheryl. Staging Blackface in Canada: Musicals, Sound Recording, and Theatrical Dance in the Age of Imitation, 1898–1919. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. ( in-press )

Thompson, Cheryl and Campbell, Miranda. (Eds.). Creative Industries in Canada. Vancouver: Canadian Scholars Press, 2022.

Thompson, Cheryl. Uncle: Race, Nostalgia, and the Politics of Loyalty. Toronto: Coach House Books, 2021.

Thompson, Cheryl. Beauty in a Box: Detangling the Roots of Canada's Black Beauty Culture. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2019.

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Thompson, Cheryl. Guest Editor. Canadian Journal of History Special Issue on Black Canadian Creativity, Expressive Cultures, and Narratives of Space and Place. 56.3 (2021): 213–80.

Thompson, Cheryl. Montreal Jazz Clubs & Festivals: Boom, Bust, and the Remaking of Black Music, 1920–2009. Cultural Production and Everyday Life series, edited by Miranda Campbell and Benjamin Woo. Montreal: Concordia University Press.

Thompson, Cheryl. Blackface Nation: Anti-Blackness in Canada's Communities: 1920–1997. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

Thompson, Cheryl. “Toronto's 1993 Production of Show Boat: Revisiting the Roots of the Black Community's Protests.” Theatre Research in Canada/Recherches théâtrales au Canada (TRIC/RTAC) Special Issue on Black Performance in Canada. 45.2 (2024): 212–231. doi.org/10.3138/tric-2023-0025

Thompson, Cheryl. “Black Canadians in the Canadian Journal of Communication: A critical reading of language and voice in its publishing history." Canadian Journal of Communication Special Issue, "On the Margins of the Margins: Racism and Colonialism in Canadian Communication Studies." 47.3 (2022): 440–61. doi.org/10.3138/cjc.2022-0029

Thompson, Cheryl. “Black Minstrelsy on Canadian Stages: Nostalgia for Plantation Slavery in the 19th and 20th Centuries.” Journal of the Canadian Historical Association. 31.1 (2021): 67–94. doi.org/10.7202/1083628ar.

Thompson, Cheryl & Jabouin, Emilie. “Black Media Reporting on Theater, Dance, and Jazz Clubs in Canada: From Shuffle Along to Rockhead's Paradise”. Journal of Communication Inquiry. 0.0 (2021): 1–21. doi.org/10.1177/01968599211042579

Thompson, Cheryl. “Visualizing the Presence of Blackness in Canada's West: Reading the Glenbow's and Breton Museum's Black Exhibitions.” Journal of Critical Race Inquiry. 8.1. (2021): 22–41.jcri.ca/index.php/CRI/article/view/14003

Thompson, Cheryl. “Black Canada and Why the Archival Logic of Memory Needs Reform.” Les Ateliers de l'éthique/Ethics Forum, special issue The Ethical Challenges of Recovering Historical Memory. 14.2 (2020): 76–106. doi.org/10.3138/cras.2017.032

Thompson, Cheryl. “From Venus to ‘Black Venus': Beyoncé's I Have Three Hearts, Fashion and the Limits of Visual Culture.” Fashion Studies. 3.1 (2020): 1–24. www.fashionstudies.ca/from-venus-to-black-venus

Thompson, Cheryl. "Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site and Creolization: The Material and Visual Culture of Archival Memory." African and Black Diaspora: An international Journal, Special Issue on Creolization and Trans Atlantic Blackness: The Visual and Material Cultures of Slavery. 12.3 (2019): 304–19. doi.org/10.1080/17528631.2019.1611325

Thompson, Cheryl. “Locating ‘Dixie' in Newspaper Discourse and Theatrical Performance in Toronto, 1880s to 1920s.” Canadian Review of American Studies. 49.2 (2019): 205–25. doi.org/10.3138/cras.2017-032

Thompson, Cheryl. “Rethinking the Archive in the Public Sphere.” Canadian Journal of History/Annales canadiennes d'histoire, Roundtable on History for Non-Historians. 54.1–2 (2019): 32–38. doi.org/10.3138/cjh.ach.54.1-2.0

Thompson, Cheryl. "Searching for Black Voices in Canada's Archives: The Invisibility of a ‘Visible' Minority." PUBLIC: Art/Culture/Ideas, Special Issue on Archive/Anarchive/Counter-Archive. (2018): 82–89. intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/public.29.57.88_1

Thompson, Cheryl. "I's in Town, Honey': Reading Aunt Jemima Advertising in Canadian Print Media, 1919 to 1962.” Journal of Canadian Studies. 49.1 (2015): 205–37. doi.org/10.3138/jcs.49.1.205

Thompson, Cheryl. "Cultivating Narratives of Race, Faith, and Community: The Dawn of Tomorrow, 1923–1971.” Canadian Journal of History. 50.1 (2015): 30–67. doi.org/10.3138/cjh.50.1.30

Thompson, Cheryl. "Neoliberalism, Soul Food, and the Weight of Black Women." Feminist Media Studies. 15.5 (2015): 794–812. doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2014.1003390

Thompson, Cheryl. “Brand Advertising in Contrast in the 1970s: Selling Race and Culture Through Beer.” In Canada's 19th Century Black Press: Roots and Trajectories of Exceptional Communication and Intellectual Activism, edited by Claudine Bonner, Nina Reid-Maroney, and Boulou Ebanda de B'béri. Toronto: University of Toronto Press ( in-press )

Thompson, Cheryl. “Contrast and Share: Reading Black Lives in Black Photojournalism in 1970s 'Multicultural' Toronto.” In Call and Response-ability: Black Canadian Works of Art and the Politics of Relation, edited by Karina Vernon and Winfried Siemerling. Montreal-Kingston: Mcgill-Queen's University Press ( in-press )

Thompson, Cheryl. “The Coachella ‘Way of Life': Music Festival as Branded Paratext and Aesthetic.” In Ripple Effects: The Active Histories and Possible Futures of Music Festivals, edited by Eric Fillion and Ajay Heble. Philadelphia: Temple University Press ( in-press )

Thompson, Cheryl & Wowk, Lucy. “The Globe and Daily Star Report on Spanish Flu, 1918-19: Reading Toronto's Response to the Pandemic's Second Wave”. In Pandemics & Epidemics in Cultural Representation, edited by Sathyaraj Venkatesan, et al., 107–20. London: Springer Nature, 2022.

Thompson, Cheryl & Crooks, Julie. “Race, Community, and the Picturing of Identities: Photography and the Black Subject in Ontario, 1860 to 1900”. In Unsettling the Great White North: African Canadian History, edited by Michele Johnson and Funké Aladejebi, 433–54. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2022.

Thompson, Cheryl. “Representing Misogynoir in Canadian News Media: From BLMTO to Marci Ien” In Women in Popular Culture in Canada, edited by Laine Zisman Newman, 26–41. Vancouver: Canadian Scholars/Women's Press, 2020.

Thompson, Cheryl. "An Intersectional Analysis of Controlling Images and Neoliberal Meritocracy on Scandal and Empire." In Neoliberalism and the U.S. Media, edited by Marian Joanne Meyers, 176–191. New York: Routledge, 2019.

Thompson, Cheryl. "Come One, Come All': Blackface Minstrelsy as a Canadian Tradition and Early Form of Popular Culture". In Towards an African-Canadian Art History: Art, Memory, and Resistance, edited by Charmaine Nelson, 95–121. Concord: Captus Press, 2018.

Thompson, Cheryl. (2018). "The New Afro in a Postfeminist Media Culture: Rachel Dolezal, Beyoncé's ‘Formation,' and the Politics of Choice". In Emergent Feminisms: Challenging a Post-Feminist Media Culture, edited by Jessalynn Keller and Maureen Ryan, 161–75. New York: Routledge, 2018.

Thompson, Cheryl "What's in a Name? The Jamaican Patty Controversy". In What We Talk About When We Talk About Dumplings, edited by John Lorinc, 173–77. Toronto: Coach House Books, 2022.

Thompson, Cheryl. “Guest Editor's Note.” Canadian Journal of History Special Issue on Black Canadian Creativity, Expressive Cultures, and Narratives of Space and Place. 56.3 (2021): 213-15.

Thompson, Cheryl. "My Ten-Year Dreadlock Journey: Why I Love the ‘kink' in My Hair… Today.” In Body Battlegrounds: Transgressions, Tensions, and Transformations, edited by Samantha Kwan and Chris Bobel. 54–55. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2019.

Thompson, Cheryl. “Remembering Uncle Tom's Cabin.” In The Ward Uncovered: The Archaeology of Everyday Life, edited by Michael McClelland, Holly Martelle, Tatum Taylor, and John Lorinc, 156–62. Toronto: Coach House Books, 2018.

Statesman of the Piano: Jazz, Race, and History in the life of Lou Hooper. McGill-Queen's University Press. Canadian Historical Review. 105.2 (2024): 322–24. https://doi.org/10.3138/chr.105.2.br14

American Capitalism's Role in South African Beauty Culture. American Historical Review. 128.4 (2023): 1824-1826. https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhad440

The Rise and Fall of the Associated Negro Press: Claude Barnett's Pan-African News and the Jim Crow Paradox. Canadian Journal of History. 53.3 (2018): 576-78.

Viola Desmond's Canada: A History of Blacks and Racial Segregation in the Promised Land. Canadian Journal of History. 52.1 (2017): 145-47.

Black Women's Portrayals on Reality Television: The New Sapphire. Journal of Communication. 66 (2016): E5–E7.

Thompson, Cheryl. (17 April 2023). “Why equity, diversity, and inclusion offices are failing us.” Toronto Star.

Thompson, Cheryl. (12 February 2021). “In Cheryl Thompson's new book ‘Uncle,' a look at what happened when ‘Uncle Tom's Cabin' became a minstrel show.” Toronto Star.

Thompson, Cheryl. (4 November 2021). “Blackface incident at Parkdale Collegiate in Toronto is a window into a centuries-long history.” Toronto.com.

Thompson, Cheryl. (19 September 2019). “Why Trudeau's ‘brownface' photo is not shocking.” Toronto Star.

Thompson, Cheryl. (23 October 2019). “Trudeau Survived. Now Stop Pretending Canada Is a Diverse Paradise.” New York Times. 7.

Thompson, Cheryl. (21 June 2018). "Being Black and a Tourist in Halifax.” The Halifax Coast.

Thompson, Cheryl. (13 December 2016). "It's Important to Put Viola Desmond into Historical Context." Toronto Star.

Thompson, Cheryl and Taylor, Christopher. (January 2025). "Critical Race Approach to Human Rights Dispute resolution." Dispute Resolution Magazine 31(1): 28-32.

Thompson, Cheryl. (6 March 2023). “Refashioning Canada.” Canada's History. February/March issue.

Thompson, Cheryl. "Casting Blackface in Canada: Unmasking the History of 'White and Black' Minstrel Shows." Canadian Theatre Review. 193 (2023): 16-20. doi.org/10.3138/ctr.193.004\

Thompson, Cheryl. (7 February 2022). “Shear Style.” Canada's History. 102(2): 20-27.

Thompson, Cheryl. (Summer 2022). “Dismantling the Myth of the Hero.” Geist Magazine. 119: 54-57.

Thompson, Cheryl. “The Show Did Go On: How Theatre Changed After the Last Pandemic.” Canadian Theatre Review. 127 (2022): 91-93. doi.org/10.3138/ctr.187.027

Thompson, Cheryl. (22 July 2020). “Hashtags and Memes are the New Black Power Salute.” Room Magazine. 44(1): 34-43.

Thompson, Cheryl. (Fall 2021). "Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima 2.0.” Geist Magazine. 118: 29-30.

Thompson, Cheryl. (21 March 2021). “On Fighting For Space in the Literary World as a Black Canadian Writer.” Literary Hub.

Thompson, Cheryl. (Spring 2007). “Standing in the Shadows of America: Afro-Diasporic Oral Culture, and the Emancipation of Canadian Hip-Hop.” Canadian Theatre Review. 130: 113-15.

Spacing

Thompson, Cheryl (18 November 2024). “Excerpt: Canada and the Blackface Atlantic: Performing Conflict in Blackface.”

Thompson, Cheryl (1 August 2024). “Remembering the Harriet Tubman Youth Centre On St. Clair West.”

Thompson, Cheryl & Daysha Loppie. (5 March 2024). “How Can We Make Black History Matter.” Thompson, Cheryl. (11 April 2023). “MAYOR'S RACE: Parsing the politics of Mark Saunders' performative allyship.”

Thompson, Cheryl & Francesca D'Amico-Cuthbert. (23 February 2023). “Black History Month: Making space for Black music in Canadian radio.”

Thompson, Cheryl. (25 February 2022). “Black History Month: Eartha Kitt's forgotten visits to Toronto.”

Thompson, Cheryl. (17 February 2021). “EXCERPT FROM ‘UNCLE': Aunt Jemima in Chicago.” Thompson, Cheryl. (16 February 2021). “The ‘bashment' parties of my childhood are Black history.”

Thompson, Cheryl. (5 August 2020). “THOMPSON: What if the Caribana Carnival went back to its roots?” Spacing.

Thompson, Cheryl. (19 June 2020). “THOMPSON: Saunders' departure won't fix the problem of policing in Toronto.”

Thompson, Cheryl. (2 June 2020). “THOMPSON: Policing the boundaries of space and race during COVID-19”.

Thompson, Cheryl. (26 February 2020). “Beverly Mascoll, a trailblazing Black entrepreneur.” Thompson, Cheryl. (29 October 2018). “The Complicated History of Canadian Blackface.” Thompson, Cheryl. (3 October 2018). “Janice Reid's ‘Real Love' Intersects Race and Space.” Thompson, Cheryl. (17 August 2018). “Marcus Garvey's Place in Toronto's History.” Thompson, Cheryl. (26 April 2018). “The Roots of Doug Ford's White Saviour Complex.”

Thompson, Cheryl. (9 February 2018). “Black History Month: Aunt Jemima Kitchens and a History of Southern Nostalgia in Toronto.”

Thompson, Cheryl. (29 January 2018). “Revisited ‘To Kill A Mockingbird' at Buddies Shines a Spotlight on Racialized Labour.”

Thompson, Cheryl. (15 August 2017). “Scarborough's Gun Violence a Symptom of Larger Issues.”

Thompson, Cheryl. (31 July 2017). “Caribana and the Meaning of Ordered Chaos.”

The Conversation

Thompson, Cheryl (18 December 2022). “Stephen ‘tWitch' Boss's death should spark real conversations about the cost of Black celebrity.”

Thompson, Cheryl (4 April 2022). "Jada Pinkett Smith and Black women's hair: History of disrespect leads to the CROWN Act.”

Thompson, Cheryl. (3 February 2021). “How ‘Uncle Tom' still impacts racial politics.”

Thompson, Cheryl. (4 November 2020). “Trump has made America nostalgic again for a past that never existed.”

Thompson, Cheryl. (19 April 2020). “Cardi B says ‘shit is gettin' real' as coronavirus pandemic reveals cracks in celebrity capitalism.”

Thompson, Cheryl. (28 November 2019). “Harriet Tubman film does not deserve the Twitter hate.” Thompson, Cheryl. (2 May 2019). “Ancestry ad Gets it Wrong: Canada Was Never Slave-Free.”

Thompson, Cheryl. (19 February 2019). “I Am Not Your Nice ‘Mammy': How Racist Stereotypes Still Impact Women.”

Thompson, Cheryl. (17 January 2019). “Black Canadian Women Artists Detangle the Roots of Black Beauty.”

EverythingZoomer

Thompson, Cheryl. (8 August 2022) "The Significance of the Ketanji Brown Jackson Supreme Court Appointment And What Canada's Judicial System Can Learn From It."

Thompson, Cheryl. (15 February 2022). “What Canadians Can Do to Support Black Communities and Causes During and After Black History Month.”

Thompson, Cheryl (5 October 2021). “Annamie Paul Did Not Quit as Green Party Leader — She Was Pushed Out.”

Thompson, Cheryl. (28 August 2022). “What the Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. Can Teach Us About Combating Racism in Modern Times.”

Thompson, Cheryl. (30 December 2020). “The Anti-Racism Movement: Was 2020 the Year of the Great Awakening?”

Thompson, Cheryl. (1 December 2020). “Tired of Giving In: How the Actions of Rosa Parks and Viola Desmond Still Resonate Today.”

Dr. Cheryl's blog

(19 August 2024). “Doing Research Part 6 of 6: Keyword Searches and Primary Sources.”

(12 August 2024). “Doing Research Part 5 of 6: Intersectional Approaches to Problem Solving.” (5 August 2024). “Doing Research Part 4 of 6: Devising Strong Research Questions.”

(29 July 2024). “Doing Research Part 3 of 6: Research Philosophy.”

(22 July 2024) “Doing Research Part 2 of 6: Defining a Research Problem.”

(15 July 2024) “Doing Research Part 1 of 6: Embracing Theory.”

(15 April 2024). “Education Series Part 3 of 3: Equity and Human Rights Offices Need Rethinking.” (8 April 2024). “Education Series Part 2 of 3: Academic Governance Reinforces Diversity Gaps.”

(1 April 2024). “Education Series Part 1 of 3: Collegiality in Universities is the New Racism.” (18 March 2024). “The Language of Slavery and Its Impact on Black Women's Bodies.”

(11 March 2024). “A Brief History of Transatlantic Slavery.”

(4 March 2024). “Women's History Month: The ‘New Negro Woman' in the 1920s” (26 February 2024). “Picturing What it Means to be Free.”

(12 February 2024). “Black Canadian Media (digital and film) is Having a Glow Up Moment.” (5 February 2024). “Puppeteer Franck Sylvestre: Performers White Audiences Love.”

(29 January 2024). “Black History Month: How to Make February Matter.” (22 January 2024). “Thinking Beyond Black Excellence.”

(15 January 2024). “We Need to Talk About How We Communicate At Our Universities.” (8 January 2024). “Images and Sounds from MOBA's Artists and Archivists in Dialogue.” (1 January 2024). “Thoughts on Taraji P. Henson and Self-Worth.”

(20 November 2020). “The Wealth Gap Existed Long Before COVID-19.”

(23 June 2020). "Contesting the Aunt Jemima Trademark through Feminist Art: Why is She Still Smiling?"

ByBlacks

Thompson, Cheryl. (2 October 2023). “Why It Matters That We Not Ignore Pierre Poilievre's N Word.”

Thompson, Cheryl. (26 August 2017). “Robyn Maynard's New Book, Policing Black Lives, Examines Race-Based State Violence In The Canadian Context.”

Thompson, Cheryl (14 May 2017). “For Colored Girls Hits the Right Tone.” Thompson, Cheryl (3 May 2017). “Bee Nation – More Than Words.”

Thompson (24 April 2017). “Black to the Promised Land at TJFF 25 Years Later.” Thompson (18 April 2017). “Hot Docs Film Review: Babe, I Hate To Go.” Thompson, Cheryl. (9 April 2017). "Here's Why Book Of Mormon Isn't Funny At All.”

Active History

Thompson, Cheryl. (11 December 2023). The Dawn of Tomorrow was a “First” Almost Forgotten By History.

Thompson, Cheryl. (7 October 2019). Why Blackface Persists and What Historians Can Do to Change It.

Other

Thompson, Cheryl. (6 April 2022). “Why Social Media Activism Inevitably Disadvantages Black People.” Heliotrope.

Thompson, Cheryl & Jabouin, Emilie. (3 February 2021). “Blackface in the Kodak Archive, Ryerson's Special Collections: Context for Reading ‘Racist' Images.” TMU Library & Special Collections.

Thompson, Cheryl. (8 September 2021). "Ditching 'Diversity': Why It's Time to Replace Diversity with Belonging in Equity and Inclusion Work." The Institutional Blog.

Thompson, Cheryl. (2019). “Hair We Are will ignite conversations.” Gardiner Museum Blog. Thompson, Cheryl.

(26 February 2018). “Canada's Black Beauty Culture is More than a Politics.” GUTS Magazine.

(6 March 2025). "Digital Assets, Black Histories: Where the Archive and Technology Collide." McMaster University, Department of Communication Studies & Media Arts, Hamilton, ON.

(13 November 2024). “Race, Afrofuturism, and the Digital Divide: Exploring the Tense of Black Technoculture through Art, Dance, and Literature.” Carleton University, Department of History, Shannon Lecture Series, Ottawa, ON.

(8 August 2024). “Thinking Beyond ‘Black Excellence'.” Algoma University, Brampton, ON.

(27 May 2023). “Equity work is about what you're willing to risk, not how you respond to a crisis.” Mel Brown Music Festival & Symposium, Kitchener, ON.

(3 March 2023). “Black Heritage Discussion.” Loretto College, Toronto, ON.

(23 February 2023). “Why We Celebrate Black History Month.” Centre for Victims of Torture, Toronto, ON., Virtual Presentation.

(7 February 2023). “London and the Blackface Atlantic,” Museum London, London, ON., Virtual Presentation.

(7 February 2023). “The Crown We Never Take Off,” DiversiPro/GECI, Ottawa, ON., Virtual Presentation.

(7 December 2022). “Black and African Canadian Collections: Barriers to Diversifying Perspectives and Knowledge.” Ingenium: Canada's Museums of Science & Innovation. Ottawa, ON., Virtual Presentation.

(22 February 2022). “My Journey: From Public School to Professor.” Upper Grand District School Board, Guelph, ON., Virtual Presentation.

(17 February 2022). “Black Excellence in Canada: Contemporary Culture.” Interac, Toronto, ON., Virtual Presentation.

(16 February 2022). “Black Beauty, Media Representation: How They Impact Corporate Cultures.” Cassels, Brock & Blackwell LLP, Toronto, ON., Virtual Presentation.

(16 February. 2022). “Untangling the Roots and Understanding the Kinks in Black Hair.” The Catholic Children's Aid Society of Toronto, Toronto, ON., Virtual Presentation.

(16 February. 2022). “A Century of Black Beauty Culture: Business and Politics.” German-American Institute (d.a.i.) Tübingen, Germany, Virtual Presentation.

(16 Oct. 2021). “Black History Celebration.” BookFest Windsor, Windsor, ON., Virtual Presentation. (12 March 2021). “Towards a Black Futurity: Moving Beyond Aesthetics in Media Culture.”

Intersections Cross-Sections Graduate Conference & Art Exhibition, TMU/York University's Joint Program in Communication & Culture, Toronto, ON.

(4 February 2021). “Author Visit at Aurora Public Library.” Aurora, ON, Virtual Presentation.

(3 February 2021). “A Conversation with Dr. Cheryl Thompson.” Teacher Candidates of Colour (TCC) and the Indigeneity, Equity and Inclusion Lecture Series, Faculty of Education, Queen's University., Virtual Presentation.

(15 October 2020). “Uncle Tom and the Politics of Loyalty: The Mutation of a Literary Character into a Racial Epithet, 1852 to present.” Studies in National and International Development, Queen's University. Kingston, ON., Virtual Presentation.

(20 July 2020). “A History of Styling Black Hair in Canada: Past & Present.” Habitus Collective. Calgary, AB., Virtual Presentation.

(20 November 2019). “Cheryl Thompson on Blackface in Hollywood: Past and Present.” TIFF. Toronto, ON.

(7 December 2018). “Reading Black Canadian Newspapers in the 1970s and 1980s: How Black Beauty Culture Entered Department Stores and Drugstores.” Future of Communication Graduate Conference, Communication & Culture, TMU, Toronto, ON.

Paper (1 June 2023). “Black Twitter as an Agent For Social Innovation: “How many times can someone hear no?”, Canadian Communication Association Annual Conference, Congress, York University, Toronto, ON.

Online Panelist (3 June 2021). “Black Canadian Media Studies: Why Doing the Work is the Challenge.” #CommunicationsSoWhite III: Canadian Style: Working with and Through Race, Virtual Canadian Communication Association Annual Conference, Congress, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB.

Online Panelist. (5 February 2021). “Canadian Blackface Culture: Confronting Racist Materials in Canadian Archives.” Ontario Library Association Conference. Toronto, ON.

Online Speaker. (4 September 2020). “Black Beauty Entrepreneurship in Southwestern Ontario, 1890s to 1920s.” Virtual Buxton History and Genealogy Conference. Buxton, ON. Paper

(6 June 2019). “Digital Blackface: Exploring the Boundaries of Meme Culture, Black Women, and Social Media.” Canadian Communication Association Annual Conference, Congress, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC.

Paper (4 June 2019). “Finding Blackface in the Community: The Role of Racialized Performance during Canada's Modern Period, 1880s to 1930s.” Canadian Historical Association Annual Meeting, Congress, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC.

Co-Presenter with Lisa Small (10 November 2018). “Intersecting Narratives of Race and Place: Minstrel Shows, Objects, and the Archaeology of Blackness in 19th Century Southern Ontario” Ontario Archaeological Society Symposium, Connections, and Pathways through the Past, November 9-11, Chatham, ON.

Paper (1 October 2018). “Stories of Migration from the Archives.” Integrating Our Voices: Centering Stories of Migration Conference. Newcomer Students' Association of Ryerson (NSAR), TMU, Toronto, ON.

Paper (18 November 2017). “From The Book of Negroes to Uncle Tom's Cabin: De-mythologizing the Underground Railroad and Canada as a Land of Freedom.” Reckoning with Slavery: New Directions in the History, Memory, Legacy, and Popular Representations of Enslavement. The Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, NY.

Chair and Panelist (2 June 2017). “Commemorating Canada's Segregated Past: The Media's Role in Nostalgic Myth-Making.” Canadian Communication Association (CCA) Annual Conference, TMU, Toronto, ON.

Paper (29 May 2017). “Neoliberalism and the Media: Toward an Intersectional, Feminist Theory, and Praxis.” The International Communication Association Conference (ICA), Hilton San Diego, San Diego, CA.

Paper (11 March 2016). “Southern Hospitality in Postmodern Food Advertising: The Case of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and the (Re)Turn of Mammy.” Intersections Cross-sections 2016 Graduate Conference, Communication and Culture Program, TMU University and York University, Toronto, ON.

Toronto Metropolitan University

Performance

THF 200: Timelines – Performance History I (Fall 2023) THF 470: Black Creative Practices (Winter, 2023, 2024)

THF 501: Research Methods (Winter, 2023)

THF 403: Landmarks in Canadian Theatre (Fall, 2022, 2023)

CRI 100: Creative Industries Overview (Fall 2018–21)

CRI 630: Advertising Theory and Practice (Winter 2020; Fall, 2021) CRI 560: Special Topics: Black Creative Practices (Winter, 2022)

CRI 560: Special Topics: Global Visual Cultures in the Creative Industries (Winter, 2021) CRI 680: Celebrity (Winter 2020, 2021, 2022)

CRI 810: Studies in Creative Collaboration (Winter 2019) CRI 710: Research Methodology (Fall 2018)

CC8902 (CMCT6002 3.0): Research Methodologies (Winter, 2024)

CC8836 (CMCT6135 3.0): Selected Topics in Media and Culture: Race, Gender and Technology (Fall, 2020)

University of Toronto

VCC 390: Topics in Visual Culture: Celebrity and Promotional Culture (Fall 2016, 2017) VCC 304: Visual Culture and the Politics of Identity (Fall 2015, Winter 2017, 2018)

VCC 236: North American Consumer Culture, 1890 to Present (Fall 2015, Winter 2017, Fall 2017)

CDN 335: Black Canadian Studies (Winter 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018)

MDOSC02: Topics in Media, Identities and Politics (Winter, 2016)

SMC 387: Advertising and Media (Fall, 2015)

McGill University

COMS 310: Media and Feminist Studies (Winter, 2014)

Guest Lectures

“Black Beauty and the New Woman for a New Century,” presented in FFS402: Fashion and Modernity, Fashion, The Creative School,TMU, 27 October 2023. Instructor: Jaclyn Marcus.

“Reading Canada's Black Newspapers,” presented in COMS464: Race and Ethnicity in Media, Department of Communication Studies, Concordia University, 24 February 2022. Instructor: Christiana Abrahams.

“Blackface Theatre, Performance, and Racial Distortion,” presented in DRM101Y1: Introduction to Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies, Centre for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies, University of Toronto, 8 February 2022. Instructor: Seika Boye.

“A Brief History of Black Beauty Culture,” presented in CF505: Innovations in the Development of the Beauty Industry, Fashion Institute of Technology-SUNY, Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing and Management Program, 7 October 2021. Instructors: Denise H. Sutton and Leslie Harris.

“Beauty Politics: Power and Privilege,” presented in FSN504: Suffragettes to CEOs, 5 April 2021. Instructor: Kimberly Wahl.

“From Cornrows to ‘Bo Braids': Contemporary Media and the Retwisting of Black Hair Aesthetics,” presented in RTA310: Media Aesthetics and Culture, 9 February 2021. Instructor: Cintia Cristiá.

“From Aunt Jemima to Miss America,” presented in LAEL-1030: History of Illustration, Rhode Island School of Design, Illustration Department, 16 November 2020. Instructor: Jaleen Grove.

“A Brief History of Black Beauty Culture,” presented in CF505: Innovations in the Development of the Beauty Industry, Fashion Institute of Technology-SUNY, Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing and Management Program, 15 October 2020. Instructors: Denise H. Sutton and Leslie Harris.

“Hair Politics and the Intersections of Race and Gender in the Beauty Culture Industry,” presented in Gender Matters, Dawson College, 8 September 2020. Instructor: Emma Doubt

“Black Women, Beauty, and the Politics of the Runway,” presented in FS8110: Critical Diversity in Fashion, Ryerson University, 1 November 2019. Instructor: Ben Barry.

“Public Sphere and the Public Space,” presented in CMN225: Communication in Place, School of Professional Communication, Ryerson University, 6 November 2018. Instructor: Guang Ying Mo.

“Discussing the Ward Uncovered,” presented in HIST118: The City in History, Department of History, Ryerson University, 25 October 2018. Instructor: Katherine Zubovich.

“Discussing the June Clark Exhibition at the AGO,” presented in Special Topics in Curriculum: Master's Level Desire and Change: Difficult Dialogues in Contemporary Art and Art Education, University of Toronto Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), 24 October 2018. Instructor: Stephanie Springgay.

“Montreal's Blackface History,” presented via Skype in HIST353: History of Montreal, History and Classical Studies, McGill University, 28 February 2018. Instructor: Max Hamon.

2 PhD dissertations and 8 MA (major research projects, major research papers, thesis) 1 postdoctoral fellow

1 US Fulbright Fellow 14 Research Assistants

2024. Advisory Consultation to identify key themes, stories and frameworks to address Blackness at a Canadian museum.

2023–24. University of Toronto Archives and Records Management Services (UTARMS) Descriptive Style Guide.

2023–24. City of Toronto's Advisory Panel for Arts and Culture, action plan for the city's Economic Development and Culture Division.

2021. Advisory Committee to identify key themes, stories and frameworks to address Blackness at a Canadian museum.

2019. Provided Descriptive Information on Portrait of an Unidentified Man, American photographer Samuel Broadbent, c. 1850, Canadian Photography Institute, National Gallery of Canada.

Mapping Ontario's Black Archives (MOBA) blog. Managing Editor & Creative Director.

Executive Producer, Creative Lead, Narrator. Enna Kim (Video Editor), Asya Twahir (Video Editor), Mel Racho (Video Editor). Black Creative Lab YouTube Channel.

Executive producer, Narrator, Appearance. Blackface Nation (Dir. Evan King, Pink Moon Studio), anticipated 2026 release.

Research & Creative Director, Blackface Resistance Entertainment in Canada (BREC), a research site and archive of blackface in Canada and Black community resistance.

Expert Appearance. Subjects of Desire (Dir. Jennifer Holness, Hungry Eyes Media), 2022.